Egypt will no longer import liquefied natural gas (LNG), after more than four years of receiving shipments, with the government imposing a new moratorium on new imports.

The country began importing LNG in April 2015 to address blackouts caused by a chronic shortage of domestically produced gas. But four years on, with gas production rising after a number of high-profile finds, Egypt’s oil minister Tarek el-Molla announced on Saturday a new moratorium on imports, according to local press reports.

The announcement follows the arrival of Egypt’s final LNG shipments last week. The latest data released in June by UK oil major BP showed Egypt produced about 49 billion cubic metres of gas in 2017, up from 40.3 billion cubic meters in 2016.

Much of this increase is due to the success of the Zohr gas field, the biggest gas field discovered to date in the Mediterranean, with an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of reserves. The discovery has changed the outlook for Egypt's gas sector.

Operated by Italy's Eni, Zohr started production in December 2017,  just 28 months after its discovery. The field is now producing at about 2 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d), following the startup of the project’s fifth production unit in September. It is on track to reach plateau production of 2.7 billion cf/d next year.

The production peak – the equivalent of almost 102 billion cubic feet a year (cf/y) – would represent more than half of Egypt’s current gas demand of about 183.63 cf/y.

Other fields are also coming online in the next few years. BP plans to bring its Giza and Fayoum developments in the West Nile Delta onstream later this year. The projects are expected to produce 400 million cf/d in December, gradually increasing to 750 million cf/d.

UK/Dutch Shell Group’s West Nile Delta 9B concession is also due to start production in October with two wells, ramping eventual output up to 400 million cf/d.